However, farmers have ignored the instructions and the total area under paddy this year has risen to 1.70 lakh hectares from 1.65 lakh hectares last year. The same is true in the case of wheat. The reason farmers are showing growing interest in both paddy and wheat crops is due to the better returns they get from these crops.

Paddy production this year is likely to be around 2.40 lakh tonnes as against 1.75 lakh tonnes last year. The higher production this year is due to the availability of adequate water and high temperatures. ``The yield has gone up sizably,'' says a spokesman of the agriculture department. Kotah, Bundi, Baran, Ganganagar etc are the districts where paddy is grown and the farmers recently have taken up the cultivation ofbetter quality of paddy.

This is owing to the higher returns good quality paddy fetches them.The basmati variety is also being exported out of the country from Rajasthan and the buyers are willing to pay good price if the quality is of their liking.

Basmati is selling in the market in a price band of Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per quintal depending on the variety. However, the coarse variety of paddy is fetching a price of around Rs 800 per quintal. The coarser variety is getting replaced by the better variety.

``The Agriculture University is engaged in developing good variety of seeds so that the farmers get higher yields and good quality of paddy,'' says the spokesman. There is however no shortage of seeds. ``We have also taken proper care to make available the fertilisers to the farmers,'' says the spokesman.